Police also seized “documents and devices” during a raid of the home of Castillo’s former defence minister Walter Ayala, the anti-corruption unit said.

Castillo, who was arrested earlier this month after lawmakers voted him out of office for attempting to illegally dissolve Congress, is being investigated for influence peddling. He faces six separate charges of corruption, all of which he has denied.

“Through these interventions, six of those investigated were arrested. The proceedings … include 26 raids nationwide,” the attorney-general’s office said on Twitter.

The leftist former president is serving 48 months of pretrial detention while he is being investigated on charges of “rebellion.”

The attorney-general’s office said on Twitter the detained generals are being investigated for “allegedly having paid to rise in rank in 2021 with the authorisation of former president Pedro Castillo.”

Former defence minister Ayala criticised the search of his home and the arrest of the generals.

“This has been unnecessary, because they haven’t found anything,” Ayala told reporters. “This investigation is over a year old … this is a show.”